Garrity G-Tech 2AA and SMJLED

[RebelRAM]

One of my favorite around the house general purpose lights is a Garrity G-Tech 2D which I upgraded with an EverLED. I have no clue what the runtime is, but it's plenty bright to light up any room in the house for hours if we have a power outage. Now why would I put such an expensive LED drop-in in such a cheap light? I like the form factor of the light, rubber grippy sleeve and a nice large faceted reflector (no donut holes in the beam).

So I have been thinking for awhile that I needed to upgrade my flashlight that I keep in my toolbox in the garage. I didn't want a huge Mag or anything like that. A small 2AA would be fine. I have kept a really old 2AA incan in there but it never was really bright enough and I didn't really like the light that much(I bought that light way before I joined CPF). I knew how much I liked my 2D G-Tech, but I didn't really want a light that large(takes up too much space that could otherwise be used for tools, YEAH YEAH I know a flashlight is a tool!) I had a spare SMJLED PR in my light parts box, so I picked up a 2AA Garrity G-Tech at WalMart. $4 for the G-Tech and $9 for the SMJLED. Who says you can't have lots of fun with a light for $13? This thing is awesome and exactly what I need for my toolbox. What's even better is that there are no donut holes in the beam and it's quite a bit brighter than my MiniMags with NiteIze upgrades!

Oh and I did compare this light to one of Garrity's GT1-LED lights(4AAA) and my modded 2AA G-Tech is still brighter. I think the GT1-LED sells for about $9 at Walmart. We have a few of them at work in the server rooms.

It had been awhile since I purchased my last light, so this was definitely a fun and cheap way to feed my light habit.

 

[sysadmn]

I've been having a great time with cheap lights. I've been haunting the clearance shelves at the big chains, and picked up a 5D Maglite for under $20, a 12 LED husky for $5.99, and the 4D Mag LED drop in for $16.99. My latest find was a 6V hand torch (floating lantern) with a 4 1/2" faceted reflector for $7.99, including a cheapo battery. Butt ugly beam, but drop a Maglite Xenon (4D Magstar $1.99 at Home Depot) and it's got a great combination of throw and spill. $10 and if you don't like the pattern, don't point it at the wall!

I'd much rather start out with 4-5 fun flashlights for $100, than one or two way-cool lights for the same $100.

 

[selfbuilt]

I'm not surprised the SMJLED was a good fit. I've stuck a couple in cheap plastic 2AA incans with PR-based bulbs, and the result were always quite good. Surprisingly better than some fixed-focus 2D cell incans, which may over-focus the SMJLED it to a relatively tiny hotspot.

Unbenownst to her, my niece got a SMJLED upgrade in her Disney "Cars" 2AA incan for Xmas last year. :santa: Should save my brother the cost of a few AAs down the road ...